Peter Borst said:

> ...AFB is so contagious that it cannot be eliminated by
> simply pulling a few frames.

It appears to me that people are still treating a simple bacteriological
infection the same way they treated the Salem Witches, and with the
same level of scientific rigor.  :)

I can understand burning hives that are "too far gone", but AFB is really
not all that "contagious" in itself.  It is spread more by beekeepers who
cross-contaminate hives when they are "subclinical", and are
showing no symptoms.  Read all about it here:

http://www.beekeeping.co.nz/disease/beecult.htm

New York appears to have much to learn from New Zealand.
We all do.

> At one time AFB infection rates were very high and the
> rate was brought down by burning.

So, let me get this straight...

1)  One detects AFB
2)  One may only detect a single cell showing symptoms.
3)  Even if the hive is otherwise doing fine, one burns it.
4)  One thereby destroys what would otherwise be a
     contributor to a strain of AFB-resistant (or tolerant) bees.

> Then beekeepers switched to medicating, which some say
> merely covers up the symptoms.

It certainly does not kill dormant spores, but only people who
slept through biology in middle school would expect any different.

While dormant spores are very, very hard to kill, one will soon be
able to start each season with an absolute assurance of AFB-free
equipment, as soon as we find a US Postal Service manager who
is a beekeeper, or environmentally oriented.  The "beam" equipment
that will kill anthrax will certainly also kill even dormant foulbrood
spores.  Simply mailing one's gear to oneself should be enough,
and likely, we can negotiate a "decontamination day" on some
winter Sunday every year, where we can gain access to loading
docks directly, and run a production line.  (At several million dollars
each, someone might as well get some use out of the machines,
since the anthrax mailer appears to have run out of either anthrax
or stamps.)

> I have kept bees for almost 30 years and I have *never* seen
> a hive get rid of AFB on its own.

Of course not, you burned them all before they had a chance!  :)

Do you include in the statement above hives that were treated using
the usual product(s), or are you talking about hives left untreated?
As I recall, hives treated properly can be said to have been "cured",
with the proviso that no one can really know where any dormant
spores might be.

There are phages that can be used to detect AFB, but they require
culturing the bacteria, which requires FINDING spores to culture.
Therefore, one must be willing to shake all one's bees into new
woodenware, and toss the old hives, every piece, drawn comb and
all, into a blender and centerfuge to detect "subclinical" AFB
(dormant spores, or an infection that is cleaned up by the bees
before you can see it.)

Bottom line, you don't know if you have dormant AFB spores,
and neither do I.  No one can know until symptoms show up.
Therefore, I submit that every hive in New York must be burned
if you want to really eliminate AFB through burning hives.

Burning hives simply because they start to show symptoms
is much like shooting everyone who you see sneezing in an
effort to defeat the flu.  You will simply waste a lot of time and
ammo, and your goal will not be achieved, no matter how high
the body count.  Symptoms lag "infection", and often lag "period
of contiguousness" in all cases for all bacteriological infections,
sometimes by extended periods.

What one can do about AFB/EFB is what they suggested in New Zealand,
which was to cease moving frames between hives, and perhaps even dedicate
specific supers to specific hives.  They found these and other common beekeeper
actions to be the major factor in the spread of AFB, and other factors (such as
AFB spreading due to drifting bees) to be non-issues.

There are lots of papers on "Paenibacillus larvae subspecies larvae" (the long-winded
name for AFB), but you have to be able to correctly type the long name correctly
into citation databases, and then slog through terms like "bacteriophage",
"od PCR - RFLP techniques", and other arcane terminology unique to microbiology.

        jim

        farmageddon